Phils continue streak, win 5th straight

Philadelphia Phillies' Grady Sizemore, left, greets Jimmy Rollins at home plate after his two-run home run against the Washington Nationals during the third inning of a baseball game in Philadelphia, Friday, July 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Daily News, Steven M. Falk)

PHILADELPHIA — The idea, still, is a stretch. The fantasy is fleeting. The numbers taunt.

All Ryne Sandberg knew as the Phillies dragged a four-game winning back to Citizens Bank Park Friday was that there was one way, just one, for them to yet make anything of this season.

“Well, we hope to continue to do what we have done the last four days,” he said. “It starts with pitching and defense, and it’s having base runners and timely hitting.”

So, the Phillies did, extending their winning streak to five Friday with a 6-2 victory over the Washington Nationals. With two games remaining before the All-Star break, that left them at 42-51, eight games out of first place in a weak National League East.

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A.J. Burnett (6-8) went 7 2-3 innings, striking out six, then left to a warm ovation from a crowd of 30,094. He threw 66 of his 108 pitches for strikes and went at least six innings for his 10th consecutive start.

Jimmy Rollins hit two home runs, a two-run shot in the third and a solo effort in the sixth. And Domonic Brown laced a two-run double to continue to show mild offensive improvement.

All of a sudden …

“Just continue going down that path,” Sandberg said. “I think the guys on the team gained strides in that department. So continue with that.”

One path Sandberg swayed from was in center field, where he started three-time All-Star Grady Sizemore over Ben Revere. Sizemore was making his Phillies debut after a short audition in Allentown, that after playing the first 52 games of the season with the Boston Red Sox. Sizemore went 1-for-4 with a run scored.

Since he decided to rest Revere, not Brown, Sandberg had his hunch proven correct in the second. After Marlon Byrd and Cody Asche collected one-out singles, Brown ripped the double into the right-center gap, providing a 2-0 lead. Brown has hit safely in four of his last five games.

The Phillies doubled their lead in the third when Sizemore led off with a single to right and Rollins pulled a Jordan Zimmermann pitch into the right field seats. The Phils had little trouble from Zimmermann (6-5), who lasted 3 1-3 innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs before leaving with an undisclosed injury.

Cameron Rupp touched reliever Craig Stammen with a double to left-center in the sixth, scoring. A relay throw from shortstop Danny Espinosa via left fielder Bryce Harper, however, beat Brown to the plate, ending the inning.

Harper would follow with a home run in the top of the seventh, but Rollins would float his 11th homer of the season into the front rows of the right field seats in the bottom of the inning.

Ken Giles replaced Burnett with two on and two out in the eighth, but was met with a Ryan Zimmerman double into the left-field corner that scored Jayson Werth. Giles, however, coaxed Harper into a foul popup to Rupp, ending the threat, and then worked a scoreless ninth.

Home runs.

Good pitching.

Solid base running.

And, suddenly, a reason to watch a team that, as recently as last Sunday, was 12 games out of first place.

“Yes, it was talked about --- fighting and hanging in there and staying positive, but also fighting through it,” Sandberg said. “And when I look back at the games, I think everybody fed off of everybody and it was a different guy each day or a couple of different guys.